I knew we were north of the border, but but the time you get to Pinedale, Wyoming, beer from Colorado is labeled an “import.”

Fat Tire an import?

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Maybe should have seen this coming; in Cheyenne we stopped in at a liquor store, bought a 12-pack and the guy hit us with, “Would you like a bottle with that?” We looked around, finally asked if he had any malt scotch. “Sure! What size?”

Old building

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Backwater

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Wyoming suburbia

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Pinedale is a great base for the Wind Rivers. Nice brew pub and a selection of bars and cafes, either staunchly Old-West, like the Wrangler Cafe and the Stockman Restaurant, or flagrantly hippy haunts like the Rock Rabbit. The Winds are a secretive mountain range, you really can’t see the mountains from outside and no roads traverse the range, unlike the picture postcard Tetons.

Looooong hike

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But,when you hike the ten-plus miles in, the mountains are wildly spectacular.

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Deep Lake

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First day we climbed the Railroad Tracks on Haystack, a sorta 5.9, great climbing, maybe 8 pitches total, on perfect granite.

Railroad Tracks

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Railroad Tracks, Haystack Mountain

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The summit of Haystack is wild, with tremendous views in every direction.

MIke and Cory, summit of Haystack

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Next day we went for a hike:

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Day 3 we climbed the north face of the Steeple, a free standing summit with a long, long approach.

The pointy thing left of center is the Steeple. Bigger than it looks.

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Great climb. First couple pitches follow perfect easy cracks.

Steeple

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Fran atop pitch 2 of Steeple.

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Higher, some serious burrowing was required....

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The 4th-class section:

"fourth class".....

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Finally, the summit: Woohoo!

Steeple summit.

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Weather was not so great but rain held off until we were safely down to the trail. The descent involves complex wanderings around steep grassy ledges with major drop-offs so this was a good thing.

Last morning:

Warbonnet, dawn

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Our next port of call was Jackson to check out Christian Beckwith’s boulder project. He’s been instrumental in installing a fun boulder park in the middle of town.

CB on the Beckwith Boulders! Best climbing in town.

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A long, drunken evening ensued (thanks for the hospitality CB!). We stayed at the Climbers Ranch, a sort of Camp 4 with training wheels. Then on the ski tram to climb at Corbet's Couloir.

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A 5.7, in theory....

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5.10c

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Excellent limestone.

Then south to Rock Springs. Or maybe not. We meandered off into the Red Desert to stumble onto a volcanic plug called the Boar’s Tusk.

Boar's Tusk

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Boar's Tusk

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It’s maybe 200 feet tall, and the easy route up it is only 5.5 or so, but it’s steep and the rock is entertainingly loose.

Boar's Tusk

Credit: crunch

Views are superb. To the north are a line of huge sand dunes wandering across the desert, all else is sage and rabbit brush, still, silent, flat. The smoke from the recent fires created a strange haze.

Ah, yes, we did run into a lot of Coloradans, Donini included. Jim, one day, went fishing and caught a dozen trout to feed everyone, including me and Fran. Hmmmm, delicious! That was generous, thanks Jim (and Angela for all the cleaning and gutting). Jim's working on the "turning lake water into a nice chardonnay" for next summer.